مدیر فروشگاهThis time I decided to close the topic of the long-suffering history of the creation of the legendary first part once and for all. To pull out from the depths of the past everything that was found and carefully study the entire path of Deus Ex from the first ideas of Warren Spector to that very “Bibles”, which we have already discussed in a separate video. Some of this period of the concept’s existence was previously flashed in other videos, but now it’s time to talk about everything in detail and thoroughly. Therefore, welcome to another educational program in two parts.
Spector made his first attempt to bring to life the ideas that were swarming in his head and gradually turned into the basis for projects in the conventional “immersive sim” genre at the end of 1994, shortly after the release of the original System Shock within the walls of the Origin Systems studio. It’s true that in a two-page sketch of a design document from those distant years, it’s quite difficult to guess a game that in the future will gain cult status and become a source of inspiration for countless developers. Origin management was offered a project with a budget of half a million dollars (quite substantial money at that time), which was planned to be released on the market in the fourth quarter of 1995. Targeted at the company’s usual gaming audience and older, wealthy gamers, dubbed Troubleshooter, it was supposed to close the gap in the settings of their new line of products with a first-person view. The fantasy direction was already represented by the successful Ultima Underworld, and the science fiction niche was planned to be occupied by the upcoming (but ultimately canceled) Bounty Hunter. Not used in any way and for the sake of fairness practically not occupied by any of the studio’s competitors, only the setting of the real world and our days remained.
And Spector is so young.
It was the emphasis on the immersion effect, recognizable scenery and simulation of events taking place in a familiar environment that was one of the main “tricks” of Troubleshooter. Coupled with bright, rich, but not too long missions, the completion of which would take from ten to thirty minutes maximum, this was supposed to turn the game into an action attraction in the spirit of popular action movies of those years. No conspiracy theories, secret societies, role-playing or other distracting elements. The main sources of inspiration for Troubleshooter were films such as Die Hard, Passenger 57, Last Action Hero, Under Siege and Dirty Harry. And of course, the heroes of these films, played by such actors as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Seagal, Bruce Willis, Wesley Snipes and Clint Eastwood. The protagonist of Spector’s new game was supposed to be similar to them. Nicknamed the “Troubleshooter” (that is, the one who fixes all problems), the former cop works as a recruiter. Security and combat specialist whose services are used by businessmen, former service comrades and even the government. In case of difficult situations involving hostage taking, terrorist attacks or bomb threats. The most difficult operations that others simply don’t have the courage to undertake. By studying the situation, maps of the area and planning his missions in advance, the player had to complete tasks with minimal casualties among the civilian population. Fighting through the ranks of well-armed terrorists, sometimes using workarounds like ventilation or sewerage, and sometimes even persuading crazy fanatics with suicide belts to surrender, saving the lives of innocent people.
All that remains from the first concept.
It’s easy to see that out of this entire set of ideas, the only thing that the Troubleshooter concept has in common with the final version of the first Deus Ex is immersion in first-person gameplay, some variability in routes to achieve goals and real-world scenery, instead of the traditional fantasy settings of those years. An unoccupied niche of the so-called “our time” and a simulation of familiar surroundings, such as city blocks, military bases and airports. But the heavy emphasis on action and the short duration of the missions would make the game a typical evening entertainment for people tired after work, hoping to just relax and briefly find themselves in the shoes of a well-trained and armed to the teeth crime fighter, causing good and bringing justice. Without complex emergent gameplay, high thoughts, reflections on the fate of the world, difficult choices and gray morality. In addition, the developers intended to place a significant emphasis on multiplayer, which was gaining popularity at that time. Where one player will take on the role of a bad guy who causes a lot of problems for society, and the other will become the “trouble shooter”. It was planned to implement all this at the highest possible technical level, using the engine that was then still in development Bounty Hunter. True, many problems with the implementation of what was planned were expected in advance, and Warren himself called Troubleshooter one of the riskiest, but potentially incredibly successful projects that went through the approval and pre-production process.
Based on the guidelines for future https://kingpalacecasino.co.uk/ system requirements indicated in the outlines, it becomes clear that if the product had been given the go-ahead, then in the final form one could count on a somewhat technically improved picture of CyberMage: Darklight Awakening, which was released in 1995. And many of Warren’s plans simply could not be realized at all. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for Spector himself, he quickly realized that technology had not yet matured to the level necessary to implement his ideas. And the marketing department of Origin, which had already been purchased by Electronic Arts in those years, was not happy with them. Therefore, Warren had to wait a few more years for his next attempt to take on the game of his dreams. Only after moving to Looking Glass (the studio of his comrades from previous projects) and heading the Austin division of the company, he again managed to return to his old ideas, albeit in a completely new form.
As you already know if you watched the episode carefully "Industry Visionaries" dedicated to Warren Spector, throughout 1996 he worked in the ranks of the expanding Looking Glass Studios, a good part of whose employees were his old friends from working on games at Origin Systems. At that time, the company was working on several new projects at once, including the “Dark Camelot” concept, which in the future turned into the founder of the cult “Thief” series. It was the Dark Engine, developed for this project in the bowels of the studio, that Spector had his eye on. Looking for an opportunity to provide his new game with the most technological basis possible, he continued to take part in brainstorming on completely different concepts, and chose to work on a fantastic MMORPG with a lot of unusual solutions as the main activity of his Austin division. This genre, which had just begun to emerge thanks to Meridian 59, was already appreciated by Warren. Considering that in the next couple of years a whole scattering of successful projects of a similar direction, such as Ultima Online, Lineage and EverQuest, saw the light of day, Spector’s increased attention to massively multiplayer games does not look too strange. True, the whole idea with the code name “Austin Internet Role-Playing” did not last very long and in the end Warren’s team decided, having tempered their ambitions, to direct all their efforts to creating a sci-fi RPG for one player. With maximum immersion in the world, freedom of action and interactivity of the environment.
The main character of the space RPG.
The project was called Junction Point and, unlike Troubleshooter, went much further than a couple of pages with loud statements. What is characteristic is that from the first incarnation of Warren’s dream game, only general descriptions of the plot, the role of the main character and the location of action in text form have survived to this day. But with the version of sample ninety-six within the framework of Looking Glass Austin, everything is exactly the opposite. No specific information about the setting in which the events were supposed to unfold, details of the world, the name of the protagonist and the plot of the plot. But among the details lost in the annals of history, you can find a full description of one of the planned missions and even a video demonstrating the first tests and assemblies on the Dark Engine core. This way you can roughly understand what the game would look like and what its gameplay would be like. Apparently, the main character of Junction Point was again supposed to be a mercenary, this time operating not only on the surface of the Earth, but also in interstellar space. Carrying out tasks for various employers and going to work from a certain hub, possibly serving as his headquarters or base. One of these missions was an assignment for X Corporation related to extracting a scientist from the clutches of a frightening sect. The task naturally began with a briefing:
“Under the leadership of Dr. Lycombs, a microbiological genius, we have made incredible progress in understanding the genetic structure of hauranids. Unfortunately, he fell under the influence of the Guardians of the True Path, a cult that worships the Hauranids as divine beings. The sect is based inside an abandoned mining colony located in an asteroid, where its members have created a kind of hive in an attempt to emulate their spiritual leaders. This militant organization is headed by Merrill Rambi, and the Hauranid they captured are kept in a state of suspended animation. The Doctor is working for the cult on a method of combining the genetic material of Hauranids and humans to create a new hybrid species that is more “closer to God”.“Under the leadership of Dr. Licombs, a microbiological genius, we have made incredible progress in understanding the genetic structure of the hauranids. Unfortunately, he fell under the influence of the Guardians of the True Path, a cult that worships the Hauranids as divine beings. The sect is based inside an abandoned mining colony located in an asteroid, where its members have created a kind of hive in an attempt to emulate their spiritual leaders. This militant organization is headed by Merrill Rambi, and the Hauranid they captured are kept in a state of suspended animation. The Doctor is working for the cult on a method of combining the genetic material of Hauranids and humans to create a new hybrid species that is more “closer to God”.”
The main task of the player, of course, would be to return Licombs back to the fold of his native corporation for his deprogramming. It would also be a good idea to destroy or seize all the research and materials collected by the doctor and at the same time eliminate the leader of the Rambi sect. The mission outline also included a brief description of the characters the player could meet as the mission progressed. Speaking with a French accent, dressed in a wrinkled Leacombs robe. Obsessed with the desire to join the holy race of the cunning Merril with a piercing gaze and a loud voice with which he broadcasts his crazy sermons. Having gotten rid of the influence of the sect of its former member Paulie McMillian, who dreams of escaping the hive. And finally the cult followers themselves. As a result of gene experiments and exposure to radioactive waste, which filled the entire complex of people who turned into insect-like monsters, armed with improvised means.
First tests on the Dark Engine.
The main location would be the same asteroid where the now long-closed ore mine was previously based. Moving in complete weightlessness with the help of a jetpack taken from one of the cultists through dimly lit tunnels littered with debris in places, the player would have to find a way to get into the complex of the former administrative sector inhabited by mutants. Where all Hauranid worshiping followers either float in a half-asleep state in threads of nets spread out in zero-gravity conditions; or listen to the voice of their mentor Rambi; or practice cannibalism in the common dining room. Entangling the victims with the same nets, rendering them unconscious and maintaining life with the help of IVs, cutting out their internal organs one by one. In general, the entire description of this mission in Junction Point strangely echoes one of the first concepts of the original BioShock called “Salvation Island”, which we talked about earlier in a separate video. And this vague connection with the projects of Ken Levine’s studio will emerge at the end of our conversation today in a completely unexpected way.
Returning to Spector’s project, it can be noted that even from the synopsis of just one single task for Junction Point, it immediately becomes clear where the legs come from for the wide variability in completing various in-game problems in future incarnations of the project, which over time turned into the familiar first Deus Ex. There were quite a few alternative methods of solving the problems and ways of achieving the goal outlined in the short introduction. Instead of combat clashes with cult members, the player could find a special remote control that controls their behavior chips and reprogram the frightening hybrids. There were also several ways to get into the holy of holies – the laboratory in the temple, where the sleepy Hauranids are kept in a cryogenic chamber. Including through a secret passage, which would have to be reached through a radiation-contaminated area, for which special nanoaugmentation would be very useful. The frozen object of the sect’s worship and its fate also depended on the player’s decision. It was possible to turn off the creature’s life support system or, conversely, to awaken it from sleep and thereby divert the attention of the entire hive. In a battle with the cult leader Rambi, instead of a long and drawn-out battle, the player could use a genetic accelerator found in the laboratory, which quickly and painfully turns the enemy into an ugly monster incapable of anything. Well, the complex itself, along with all the remains of the former ore mine, could be destroyed using explosives with a timer found in the warehouses. Having previously evacuated with Dr. Licombs on a rescue shuttle. Or, having damaged a huge dome with gardens located on the surface and going into outer space in special spacesuits, activate a beacon for a search group that will take you to the base. And even this is not all, and given the short size of the mission description, this says a lot.
One of the temporary models.
Spector himself, in later interviews, more than once said that, despite the external dissimilarity of the early game concepts from the final version of the original Deus Ex, they had a huge influence on the formation of the key pillars of this project. And Junction Point, canceled due to the closure of Looking Glass Austin and Warren’s move under the wing of John Romero, is perhaps one of Spector’s most important steps. On his way from the idea of an immersive simulator that arose after the completion of the development of System Shock to the final formation of all the principles of this conventional genre, which gave birth to the first part of the Deus Ex series. After all, it was not without reason that the studio founded by him and Art Min in 2005, which in the future gave gamers the Epic Mickey duology, received a similar name, and many of the developments of this concept were directly transferred to the next design document. However, the most interesting thing in the whole story with the legacy of Junction Point is the admission of one of the leaders of Irrational Games Jonathan Chay that their team, at the suggestion of the same Looking Glass, studied the concept of Spector’s never released game. Of course, now it’s difficult to say exactly how all this influenced the second System Shock, which was eventually taken over by Ken Levine’s team, and whether it influenced it at all. But the fact that his very first design document contained the name Junction Point, some similarity of future motives when creating BioShock, and the fact that both projects were developed on the same engine is difficult to ignore. However, there is no need to talk about any significant contribution of Warren’s ideas to the release version of System Shock 2, and all this information rather belongs to our fickle, but many favorite category of “entertaining garbage”.
As for Spector himself and the conversation about how his epic with the game of his dreams continued, we will touch on all this in the next video. Formed at the dawn of work at Ion Storm in 1997, the concept of “Shooter: Majestic Revelations”, which had already appeared in the analysis of the “Bible” Deus Ex, will be considered in as much detail as possible by us. Thus closing the last gap in the story about the long journey of this game to release. All links to sources and design documents of each of its incarnations translated by me into Russian will also appear under the next video.
